I understand that you and the BCS board have been working on a facilities agreement for some time. However it is only within the past few weeks that the community learned the details of your efforts here, and it has been less than a week since we first saw a draft of that agreement. To many of us in the community, marching toward a go/no-go date of June 4—a week and a half from now—is simply too rushed for something as complex and important as this. I want to urge you to take the June 4 date off the table and use a less constricted timeline to ensure that not only the community but also yourselves have had time to properly understand the agreement and all of its implications and possible outcomes before committing to it.

The biggest thing standing in the way of this is the need to provide facilities to BCS for 2012-13. It takes time to procure and install portable classrooms. There is one simple thing you can do to address this: start implementing the current 2012-13 Prop 39 offer of K-6 at Egan and 7-8 at Blach as insurance. Yes, I realize this may result in wasted costs and effort if you sign a long-term agreement with BCS. But I consider this a small price to pay for insurance that addresses a very real contingency which takes the time pressure off of you and the decision-making process.

And to those who might claim that by doing so, you are showing that you aren't really committed to a good faith effort in making the long-term agreement work, you can say that you are simply being responsible and ensuring that all LASD students have reasonably equivalent facilities on the first day of school this coming fall, no matter what the outcome of the negotiations with BCS. It's about acting for the best interests of the students.

Thanks again for all you have done and are doing to move this decade-old divisive issue toward a positive resolution.